


A walk with you!

by SilverLine3



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-07-12
Packaged: 2018-05-18 03:56:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5897359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverLine3/pseuds/SilverLine3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stefan went back in time, to change the course of time…… to save the only thing that mattered to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Part 1**

Does it ever happen to you, that the pain feels so much and nothing at the same time, making every atom in your body numb and dead? He thought otherwise, even though he has encountered the heart aching pain in every corner of his lifetime. **  
**

 

However, nothing had been anything compared to what the present gave him. His eyes looked at her, without blinking. Everything looked painted with red, maybe due to his red eye. He convinced himself that this might be the only reason that his grey shirt didn’t look grey anymore, and it was nothing to do with the fact that it was drenched with blood.

 

He has lost the track of time for which he had been sitting at the same position, unblinking and stiff, no bone, and no muscle making any kind of movement. Dusk turns into dawn, and he is still there, as if glued to the floor, waiting for getting the hope he always gets from her. But, she is still like the water, his arms wrapped around her cold body, gripping her tightly. He could feel the skin dusting away into ashes in those parts where her body burnt, but he is unable to let her go. His jaws clenches when he watches the strand of her golden hair touching her cheek.

 

For a second he thought that was her, moving her cheek, but it happened to be just the silent wind blowing into her hair.

 

 

 

His eyes blinks for a millisecond, and when it opens, he finds himself in a new surroundings. He doesn’t care for anything, but the missing part, the girl who was in his arms once, the girl whom he couldn’t save, because he was too late. She is gone, far away to a place he can’t find her anymore.

 

 

The permanent truth hitting him like the meteorite from the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He doesn’t know how he ended up in the confinements of this new apartment.

 

Must be Damon.

 

He thought.

 

 

 

If he listens carefully, he can hear Damon calling someone every single day. It’s his calls which makes Stefan be aware of the fact that it’s a new day, every day. He could have switched it off, or could have just run away. After all, that’s what he has been doing in the past. It could have been so easy and so much better.

 

 

Thus, he chooses otherwise.

 

 

 

 

 

“How is she?” Damon is on the phone again. And Stefan can hear only one side of the conversation. Not because he can’t, (vampire super hearing and all), but because he simply doesn’t want to. He wants to block Damon’s voice as well, but he is standing right next to his room, and he is loud.

 

“Is the recovery any better?” A pause, and Stefan guesses that it follows Damon’s irritation.

“You know I can’t come to visit her. Or else she might throw something at me. And plus… he needs me right now. Don’t wanna keep myself away from him.” The last statement was purposely in a hush sound. But, Stefan heard it anyway. His brother is worried that he might turn it off.

“I know he won’t turn it off. And I am not worried for that.” Damon sighs, lost for the words. When was the last time, that Damon Salvatore never had a word to define what’s going in his head? “I have to keep an eye on him.”

Stefan doesn’t know what is making his brother worry so much. It’s not like he is doing anything anyways.

Turns out, Damon’s fears were not about Stefan turning humanity switch, but the worry for Stefan actually getting relieved of the pain permanently.

Stefan had thought of the suicide.

 

 

But, it was easy go for him as well. He wanted to feel the pain, the emptiness. He wishes every single second for having one more moment with her.

 

 

 

 

“Stop turning into a vampire zombie.” Damon threw the blood bag on his bed, where he has been sitting for days.

“I don’t want it.”

“So, what do you want? To desiccate away? Don’t take any ideas from me, brother. Let’s just keep all the irrational decisions in my periphery.”

Stefan doesn’t reply. He doesn’t want to.

“Yeah, maybe that would take away your pain.”

 

 

 

 

After days, it was the first time he ingested the blood. He wants to feel every single aching torture he is having.

 

 

Desiccation is too easy.

 

 

 

 

Few weeks after, he realizes the phone calls which his brother do, they are all for Bonnie. She has been in some rehab since that day, the one which turned everything black in his life.

He doesn’t care about it anymore.

He should though.

Because he cares about everyone.

That was something she liked the most in him.

But, he doesn’t want to be likable anymore. That part of Stefan died with her.

He left the place without any notice. He wanted to find any way to bring her back. And he wasn’t going to give up on her.

 

 

 

 

It was after almost five months, when he fumbled on a powerful spell. And it wasn’t because he was looking for that particular spell. But, since every witch and every shaman he came to meet up with have taken their hands up. He had to try this. Even though he hates to the core to contact her again, she looks like the only option to him.

 

 

 

“I knew you would come looking for me one day. Didn’t I told you so?” She smiled at him, taking steps closer to him.

He gave her the book containing that spell. “Can you do it?”

“Yes, I can. Although, the question that you should be asking is whether I will cast this spell or not.” That playful smile again.

“I know you will.”

“And why are you so sure about it?”

“Because… you owe me Valerie Tulle.” His words were calm, but she could see the fire in his eyes, he could literally kill her if she didn’t help him.

“Are you threatening me?”

“I am just stating the fact.”

“Are you really wanna do it?” she asks him warily.

“Yes!” He has made up his mind now.

“You KNOW what this spell do, right?”

“Yes!”

“And you know the side effect.” It wasn’t the question. Because she could tell from his face that he knew every side of this spell. And he still wanted to do it. “You love her so much that you would go to any extent!”

He remained silent, because if his love would have been so powerful, she might have been standing beside. But, she isn’t.

“Ask Bonnie to do this for you.”

“Are you mocking me?”

she could see the glimpse of anger in him. Bonnie was in some rehab for months. She has lost the will to do the magic, blaming herself for losing two of her friends. And he can’t go to her.

“I can’t do this, Stefan. The thing which you are asking is not up to me. And after everything we saw, I don’t wanna play with magic.”

Rage bursting from him directed towards her, but the migraine hits him before he could do anything.

And when he recovers that headache, she is already gone… one of the many reasons his life is destroyed.

 

 

 

 

 

It was exactly a week, when she comes to meet him back.

“Did you came here to die?”

“I am here to help. To do that spell you asked for.”

“What changed your mind?” Stefan questioned. Maybe she is playing with him.

“Someone said that I owe you… and he is right.”

“Everything will change from that point.” She stares at him while putting the ingredients together.

“I know what I have to do!”

“However, I have one demand.”

Stefan should have known that nothing comes from her without any terms and conditions.

“I want my freedom.”

“Deal!” He said instantly.

“Which year would you like to go back?”

“1994”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her chants starts, simultaneously making him close his eyes. If he can turn the wheels of time back, he would save her… save her from himself. With the chanting words, his heart calls the same name over and over again…. Caroline…. Caroline Forbes!

Stefan went back in time, to change the course of time…… to save the only thing that mattered to him.

 

**Year 2009**

The curtain waves when the the soft breeze flows into her room through the open window, as if the sun has been trying hard to get a peek on her sleeping bliss. When the constant ray of sunlight falls on her face, making her eyes squint, she stretches her body, still smiling in her sleep. She loves mornings. The other reason for being happy is that it is the first day of school. Planning committee, cheer-leading club, and what not. She jumps off the bed. It is going to be a great day today.

One purse on her right arm, perfect blue dress for the first day of the school and her golden curls perfectly set, she walks straight to her friends, Brenda and Celina.

She was confused how to console her friend, Celina. With her parents dying in the car crash, and the only survivor from that crash being her, everything was making Caroline confuse and she didn’t know how to approach someone in a state like that. She has never experienced any death in her life. How was she suppose to know how to talk with someone in such situations?

“It is going to be great day… mark my words! Maybe there will be a hot new guy joining our school.” she winked at Brenda, making her shook her head. “What? It is very well possible!”

“When did I said, it’s not?” Brenda nodded in agreement.

 

 

 

Sad for her, there was no new guy, just the old faces around her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Maybe an angel saved you!” Brenda responded

“There is no such thing as an angel.” Caroline laughed it off. “I am sorry guys, but I don’t believe in such things as angel with wings or any other supernatural stuff to say.”

Maybe some things are good to remain in the shadows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheer-leading was fun, and plus there were always cute guys in the team as the eye candy for her. And as the captain of her team, she had her own perks, like dating the football captain. Jocks were good to go kind of boyfriends.

“I will see you in the party.” Zach said after giving a peck on her lips.

“What party?” Heart was jumping on the thought of her boyfriend throwing a party for her after all.

“The team party.”

“The team party?”

“Yeah, we are throwing the party, since the game is already won.” His face was glowing with the dream victory, but hers was lost in that shine, she laughed with him as well. But, somewhere deep in her heart, she was craving for him to remember that it wasn’t just any victory day for him, but also her birthday.

 

 

 

 

 

“Caroline, you are no fun. When did you became so bore?” Zach was drunk, and Caroline was pissed. Not only did her boyfriend forgot her birthday, but also ignored her just for flirting with other cheerleaders.

 

 

 

It wasn’t even an hour or so, and she left the party, without telling anyone. Not that her boyfriend was paying any attention to what she was up to. One less person in his party. He won’t even notice it. And the thought was aching in her heart. She came out of the place, and all he cared was about his friends. Sometimes she felt like she never really belongs in this city and with these people, especially with Zach.

She looked for her cellphone in her purse, thinking of calling her mom, but her brain reminded her that she must be in her late night shifts… she hated it to the core of her heart. Not because her mother was on patrol, but for the fact that she was on patrol on her own daughter’s birthday. She hated it because, her mom had time for the city but not for her. And the only person who could have loved her more than anyone was gone. He left her mother for some other guy,and she was left behind… just like she always had been.

She didn’t realize and she was around the corner from her parked car, which was the moment when she felt a shadow following her. Her steps should have been faster, but instead they slowed down. Too scared to blink her eyes, she turned around, staring in the dark alley.

Her heart started to come to a normal pace when she figured it was just a small kitten looking for food in the dumpster.

Is it possible to be touched by a shadow and feel wonders of the world?

Her eyes were wide once again on the feeling, the sudden breeze, the cold touching her skin.

But, there was still nothing around her. Just an abandoned street, with her standing in the middle of the night. Maybe there was no one. However, she couldn’t help but to stare back in the dark alley, the place where she thought she saw two twinkling stars.

 

 

She wondered for the first time if stars can have a color of green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Mystic Falls?” Caroline followed her mother into the kitchen.

“Yeah, Mystic Falls.”

“Why?”

“Because I have to go there.”

“Didn’t we left that place because you never wanted to stay there?” She waited for an answer which looked like an empty air around them. “Mom… is it about dad?”

“No, it’s not about him.”

“Then why are we going there?.”

“WE are not going anywhere. It will just be me.”

“Oh, so that ‘city’ needs you, and you decided to run there, leaving your only teenage daughter here all alone.”

“Honey, I will be back soon.”

“Yeah, well… that’s what Dad told me too, and look where he is now.” She stomped off from the room. She was too angry to even wipe off the tears.

“Where are you going?” Her mom called her, but she didn’t answer and shut the door behind while going out of the house.

She took the car to stall around. Her car speed was accelerating exponentially. She should stop any minute, but, she wanted to take her mind off of everything happening around her. She wasn’t damaged, then why were every single person in her life treating her like the dirt on the road?

She slowed down after riding for almost an hour or so and pulled the car in a gas station she saw first.

Maybe standing in the empty space would help her clear her thoughts, since driving didn’t do the work.

It was a windy day, and her hair kept on coming in her eyes.

“Ugh, seriously!!” She grumbled.

A chuckled voice came from the right corner behind her.

She turned around to see the hooded guy standing like six feet away from her.

“Is this funny to you?” She demanded to the faceless stranger.

Instead of replying, he just walked away.

“Hey… I am talking to you.” She followed.

He turned around the corner, slipping away something from his pocket.

“Hello… you dropped something.” She shouted, but he didn’t stop. And when she turned around the corner, she had lost him.

The shiny object was left there on the road. She took it in her hand and started examining it.

A small snow-globe chain ring. She rolled it in her hand. She could clearly see a replica of a small town inside it, with the words ‘Mystic Falls’ imprinted on it.

“Like I am not getting enough of this stupid town.”

Saying out loud, she raised her hand to threw that thing in the dumpster right there.

However, something inside her stopped her…. as if for some reason, she was meant to find it. So she just kept it.

“I will return it to him, whenever I find him.”

 

 

The only problem was she never saw his face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another party. This time it was her throwing it, and it was freaking awesome. After all it was HER party. She never fails to bring perfection in anything.

She was laughing, and totally buzzed.

“Isn’t it FAD?” Brenda came towards her with her peacock mask on her eyes.

“Is it a news to you?” Caroline responded.

“Masquerade party is the best one. I am look at all those meat walking in a tux. I just wanna take a bite of them.”

“You still can, hun.”

“But, how will I know how he looks?” Brenda pouted.

“That’s the thing about a masquerade party.” She took her glass of beer and walked towards .

“And what is that?” Brenda asked shouting her throat out.

“You don’t have to see the face.”

 

 

 

Just like an hour back, she didn’t think that she will feel sour, and annoyed and pissed. But, now she is. And the credit goes to her jackass of a boyfriend, Zach.

Maybe she could ignore the flirty little thing he do with other girls. Okay, scratch that. She never could ignored it. It made her way too insecure in her relationship, but now he was kissing someone else, and it was ticking her nerve.

 

 

It was her fifth cup of beer.

“You shouldn’t drink that much, you know.” A voice came from her left side.

“And why do you care?”

No response.

She turned her head to look at him, 5’11” feet tall, brown hair, a well tailored black suit that was fitting perfectly on his lean body. He had thick black mask which was covering up half of his face.

“I just know that you deserve better than THAT.” He pointed at Zach, making a face.

“And how do you know THAT?”

She didn’t took her eyes away from him. More like she couldn’t.

He turned his head in her direction as well.

“Because, you are… you.”

The music was loud in the hall, but it wasn’t for her. The epicenter of her thoughts became the words he just said. No one has ever said anything like that to her. And for some weird reason, she felt like those words were not so alien for her.

The good thing about the Masquerade party is you don’t have to see the face. But, she wanted to see the face behind it so bad.

“Do I know you?”

“Doesn’t look like that.”

A vague answer… so she modified her previous question. “Do you know me?”

A smile lingered on his lips when he said, “Everyone knows you Caroline.”

Caroline…. Her name felt so good in his voice.

She shook her head. She should be feeling sad because her boyfriend didn’t care for her.

And all she could think was the cologne he was wearing.

“Where are you going?” She shouted when started walking away.

He didn’t answer.

Seems like his usual way.

“I asked you a question.” She came out of the party, walking on the grass towards him.

“Going for a walk.” He said while walking.

“Who are you?” She couldn’t resist to ask.

He stopped at his place, and slowly turned around to see her.

“I thought that was all the point of a Masquerade party, Caroline.”

“Which is?” She prompted.

“You don’t have to know the face.” He tilted his head a little, which made the spike on his hair showing the edges in the starlight.

“But, you know me!”

“Yes.”

“And I don’t even know who you are… that isn’t fair.” She pouted crossing the arms across her chest.

He turned around, walking slowly in a backward motion. “Life isn’t fair Caroline.”

She followed.

“It’s not a big town you know. I can easily guess your identity.”

“Be my guest!”

She huffed. Caroline is anything but patient right now.

“Mike?”  “Nope”  “Ren”   “Nope.”  “Tom.” “No” “Ken.”

“I am not a barbie, Caroline.”

He was still ahead of her, walking at a regular pace.

“Stefan.”

For a miniscule of the second, she thought he turned his head slightly in her direction. He didn’t stop walking.

Neither did she.

“Isn’t Stefan kind of an old name?”  


“Heyyyy, I like that name!”

“You do?” Even though she couldn’t see his face in the moonless night, she could feel his curled up lips with her last statement.

“Well.. yeah.” She waited for more response…. There wasn’t any. “So, are you gonna tell me or not?”

She stopped. So did he.

He stopped as well. “Some mysteries should be left unresolved.” He whispered to himself, so low that only he could hear it.

“Fine, I will just call you Stefan then… unless you want to be called someone else?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Whatever you like Caroline.”

He stood there hearing  her footsteps coming towards her.

“Then Stefan it is.” She smiled under the shadow of the tree beneath which they were standing right now. The house had a big garden… good for them for stalling.

 

A cold breeze, the feeling of someone watching started to invade into her.

“What was that?” She looked around, trying to concentrate on the object shuffling the dry leaves on the ground.

She looked at him, who was scanning the place, as if searching for something. The playful charisma on his face was lost and turned into full alert mode.

“I have to go.” he said, while his eyes were still fixed far away.

“What? Where?”

“I shouldn’t be here. i shouldn’t have come here.” He was muttering constantly, scolding himself.

“Hey…” She was about to say more than that, but held her arms tightly, and looked deep in her eyes.

His eyes were so green and so brown, that they became hypnotizing.

“Look into my eyes.”

He didn’t need to ask that.

“You were tired of the party”

“I was tired of the party.” She heard herself saying the words robotically.

“So, you decided to walked to your house.”

“I decided to walk to my house.”

“We never talked….”

“We never talked”

“You never followed me outside.”

“I never followed you outside.”

“And…” he stopped. Finding it hard to say it out loud. “You never met me.”

“I never met you.”

“Oh and one more thing……”

 

He whispered the last few words.

 

 

With the swift wind…. he was gone.

 

 

 

 

Caroline took out her mask, and put that on her dressing table. She remembers walking to the house, the only thing she couldn’t understand was why she walked if she took her car over there.

That and the piece of a black feather in the grip of her palms. She opens her jewelry box and kept it inside, like it belongs over there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caroline walked to the school, since she forgot her car parked somewhere near the pub.

“Hey, I was looking for you. Where were you gone missing yesterday?” Zach stopped her in the middle of the hallway.

“As if you care.”

“Hey babe… now don’t act like this.”

“Get out of my way  because we are over.” She pushed him aside and tried to walk passed him. But he held her hand.

She never realized anything that happened in the split second, and when her anger raised so high that she turned around and punched straight on his face with her close fist.

The whole school stopped around them, while she saw Zach’s nose bleeding with red.

“I, uh…” She was shocked, because the girly little Caroline had never done this before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Please tell me you didn’t?” Brenda rushed into the washroom.

“I so did.” Caroline had been standing there for God knows how long. “He came on my face, and then I tried to walk past him, and then he stopped me, and I got so angry, it’s like I never realized why I did what I did.”

“And did it felt good.”

“So… damn… good. I mean I would have never done that, but it’s like the feeling I got. I felt so relieved, because I realized something.” She stared at her reflection in the mirror.

“And what is that?”

“I deserve better than him.”

 

 

 **Year 2010,  
** **Chicago**

“So, what are you doing here again?” The girl asked the not so cheery Caroline.

“Visiting a cousin.” She yawned. “You are Stefannie right?”

“Right.” The girl rolled her eyes. “How the hell did you got lost in this city?”

“I have a.., uh, problem of wandering around.”

“That’s a bad one though. Nights can be weirdly dangerous you know.”

Caroline laughed at her. “I am a big girl, and I can take care of myself.”

“Sure, you can.” She responded.

“You are not going to abandon me in the middle of the road, are you?” She was plain serious.

“Even if I want to, I won’t. “

“But, seriously though what is with people not telling me their names?” Caroline muttered.

“Who didn’t tell you?”

“Well, there is you, whom I just gave a random name…”

“And?” she looked at Caroline through the corner of her eyes.

“And… “ Caroline was confused, it’s like the moment, the name was right there on the tip of her tongue, and now it’s gone. “Well… there are many more.”

“Mystery is fun, isn’t it. Anyways… your address is right there.”

“Thanks.” Caroline jumped out of her car.

“I thought you wanted to know my name?” The girl smiled at her.

“Are you going to tell me though?”

“Raina.” She said with the smile so bright on her lips.

“I love the name.”

“Thanks… I love yours too Caroline.” And she drove off.

Caroline smiled and walked towards the door when it hit her.

When did I mentioned my name to her?

Maybe she did… she was a little tipsy, that might be the reason of her losing memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I am not going anywhere with you.”

“Please, don’t be so uptight.”

“Oh… I am.. I am so not uptight. Last time I went with you, you abandoned me!” She complaint, a bit annoyed at her cousin.

“This time I won’t… I promise.”

She sighed…. anyways she was getting bored. So, she went along with her cousin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Can I get a shot of vodka please.”

“And Can I get an ID on you?” The bartender studied her.

She grinned and started, “Listen..” her eyes read the tag on him. “Michael, I was brought here to have fun, and since my cousin who promised that she won’t ditch me… is now M.I.A., I am left with the only thing I enjoy the most. So, will you mind?” she made her puppy eyes.

And who could have said no to that face.

“Only one.” The bartender surrendered.

She smiled widely.

“I was actually about to offer you one, since you were having some difficulty getting. But, I see you managed it very well.” A stranger walked towards her and without asking much.

“I don’t need any saving, per se… I have charms which I can very well use for myself.”

“Sure, you can.” He smiled at her.  “Is this seat taken?”

The British accent was fluent and eloquent.

“Aren’t you a little old to flirt with me?” She raised an eyebrow, still keeping the smile on her face.

He chuckled softly. “Time and age cannot be quantify in my world, love.”

“In which world do you live? Because the world where I live, time and age isn’t constant.”

He didn’t argue. However, his eyes were constantly staring at her hands. “Nice ring.” He said while observing the blue colored-stone ring she was wearing on her index finger.

“Thanks.”

“Where did you get it from?”

“I don’t remember, I have been wearing it since I was a kid. Anyways, why am I even telling you all this?”

He shrugged. “I am Niklaus.”

“And I am not interested.” She almost rolled her eyes, taking her glass of shot.

“Klaus.”

Her ears were perked up on hearing that voice. Her heart was beating louder than it should have been. She turned her head to see the new person standing near the fellow Britisher she had been talking to. More like he had been talking to her.

Her eyes met his. And she saw something… Fear? Anger? Love? a surge to protect someone?

She couldn’t pinpoint it.

“We have to go.” His eyes drifted towards the person he came for. Klaus, he called him.

“What’s the hurry Stefan. You should sit and enjoy the drinks and say hello to this lovely companion sitting right next to me.”

She kept staring at him, and he kept his eyes away from her. “Hi.” She prompted. She wouldn’t mind being interested in him.

5’11” Tall, brown spiky hair, a olive skin toned, mainly because of the sun tan, he looked extra gorgeous. He was wearing a black colored jacket with a grey shirt underneath.

“Hello.” He replied after a minute or so.

“Wanna join for drinks?” She asked.

“No… I can’t.”

He said no straight to her face, and something inside her crushed.

“Do you really wanna have drink with me?” He smiled at her devilishly. Or at least he was trying to. She should be scared of the look he gave her. The vibe of a psycho killer.

But, her heart was calm.

“I am kind of a… private drinker.” He whispered right in her ears. And the shivers left her throat.

“Stefan… don’t go all ripper on her.”

She heard the British one saying.

“What? I thought she wasn’t interested in you.”

“I am not.” she nodded.

“See.” Stefan (the name she heard for that face, so she went along) said. “The backside of this place is really good. And I can show you…. if you want.”

It wasn’t the question he asked, but the way he asked.

He looked dangerous. The crazy in his eyes. But, she didn’t. Something inside her keeping her from doing so.

“Come.” His eyes wandered all over her, as if scanning and taking the x-ray of her body. She felt naked under his gaze, but she couldn’t help herself. As if she was hypnotized by his green eyes.

He took her hand and guided through the crowd. She heard the grumbled voice from Klaus behind them,  but he didn’t stop them.

“Where are we going?” She asked.

“You will know it soon.”

He took her in between the crowd with the loudest noise ever on this planet. Once they were far away from where they left his friend, he turned her around and pushed her to the corner wall.

He was standing dangerously close to her, so close that she could feel the heat radiating through his jacket.

He looked around them, as if his every action was being examined, and then he looked in her eyes.

He tilted his head, and brought his lips closer to her neck.

She closed her eyes. But the lips kept hovering over there, as if he didn’t want to let it go and just get lost in the moment.

They stood there like that for some minutes or so, his lips still a centimeter away from her skin.

She saw him bringing his head up to her level.

“He is gone now.” He mumbled.

“Who?”

“You are gonna walk out of here, and go home. You are gonna forget that we ever met.” The cornea in his eyes were playing with her.

“Did you ever removed that ring before?” He asked pointing at the blue stoned ring.

“Never ever… since I got this when I was a kid it’s right there.”

“And if somebody told you to remove it?”

“I am not going to…. even if they compelled me to.”

He nodded. “Just in case… you know.”

“In case what?”

 

 

He stared at her through his long lashes. “You can go now.”

 

 

 

“When did you came home?” Her cousin asked once she walked into the house.

“Just like an hour before.”

 

 

 

 

“Found any cute guy?” She asked smiling at Caroline.

“No… not so much.” She sighed, and went back to her room. No fun whatsoever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Year 2011,  
Mystic Falls**

It was the summer time, and she could never hate a sunny day. But she did…mainly because she was visiting her dad. Her father was in the hospital.

That’s when she met Elena.

“Hey, long time.” She said.

“How are you, Caroline?”

“I am fine” she lied. “How are you?”

“I am fine.” She saw a guy coming towards their direction. Black jeans, black, shirt, a black jacket with a raven black hair.

“And you are…?” She prompted

“Damon Salvatore.”

“Caroline Forbes.”

“Forbes as in…”

“Forbes as in the daughter of the the guy who is inside  battling for his life. I mean I thought there were no wolves in this town, where the hell did this one came from?”

“They are animals Caroline, they just roam around.”

For some reason Caroline couldn’t help but notice Damon observing her.

“Do you wanna say something?” She asked

“No… I was just curious that I never saw you around here.”

“Yeah… I don’t live here. We, uh, we shifted to another town, when I was like two years old.”

“1994!” Damon said.

“Yeah.”

“That’s a really nice ring.”

“Thanks. I don’t what’s in this ring, but people keep asking me about it.”

“Who else asked you?” Damon inquired.

“I… I don’t remember.”

“Do you mind if I see it?”

“Yes.”

 

He waited.

 

“I meant, yes I do mind…. this is my ring and I am not gonna remove it.” She stomped off of the place, without having any further discussion.

 

 

 

 

 

Doctors said that her father was fine, and she was all happy. But, then the doctor said that he had not much time.

She didn’t get it. He was looking perfectly fine to him, even though somebody literally stabbed him, and he was dead for a minute or so, but he came back to life. It was a miracle.

She was driving back to her dad’s place, to get some essentials for his discharge.

Her eyes went wide, when she saw a person in the middle of the road. She pressed the brake hard, but it was too late.

She felt the collision.

“Oh, my God.” She whispered, and opened the door of her side.

“oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”

She walked faster towards the body. “No, no, no, no, this can’t be happening.”

She pulled out the phone from her pocket and dialed 911.

But, before the call could have connected, her phone was snatched by some stranger.

“Hey.” She shrieked at him.

He went towards the person lying on the road.

“I didn’t know, I didn’t saw him… and he came out of nowhere. And I, hey what are you doing?” She suddenly saw him bringing his wrist towards his mouth.

Did he just bit himself?

“What the hell are you doing?”

And then she saw it all.

His fangs coming out, piercing into his skin, the blood oozing out of the spot, him making the injured guy drink his blood. And the weird web kind of veins emerging beneath his eyes.

She saw it all.

“What the hell are you?” she whispered, glued to her position. When he turned around to look at her….

She ran…

She ran as fast as she could have had.

She can make it to her car.

She was fast.

But he was faster.

“Hey, listen.”

“Stay away from me.” She warned.

“Just look at that guy, I didn’t do anything, he is safe.” He said everything in one breathe.

He was right.

The guy was…. fine?

“What happened?” She asked

“It healed him.”

“But-”

“You are going to remember that you were driving by this place, and then you hit that guy. But, nothing major happened. He just had a concussion and he was safe. And you never saw anything, you never met me. And now you will drive back home.”

He was gone.

She saw him liquidized in the air, as if his body was made of the air particles.

 

 

The only thing that she couldn’t understand was, whether he was giving her a warning to keep her mouth shut, or whether he was requesting her for.

 

 

Because how can she forget something like this? After all… you don’t see a person getting healed magically everyday.

 

 

 

Maybe it was in the water of the Mystic Falls….. but, she remembered him…. The guy with the forest green eyes.

**TO.BE.CONTINUED**


	2. Chapter 2

**Part-2**

She sat there for god knows how long, tapping her foot on the wooden floor. Her fingers kept fidgeting over one another.

_“Your father is dying.” Dr. Meredith informed her._

_“It’s not possible. He looks perfectly fine.” She replied back._

_“He does, but internally he isn’t.”_

 

 

It wasn’t making any sense to her, but today there was nothing which was making sense. One one side there was her father who they all said was dying, and then there was him.

 

 

She was still in shock.

He had fangs, and no normal person can have fangs.

It was stupid to even thought like that.

Vampires doesn’t exist… well they do. But, only in stories.

But, how could she deny the mystery she saw in front of her. she needed answers or else she might go crazy.

 ****  


She ended up on the same road, she admitted an accident few hours back. She wanted to find him, but had no idea where to begin with. Hell, she didn’t even know his name. How is going to find him?

He came out of nowhere when the accident happened. Maybe, he lurk around there, and she can confront him.

“This is crazy.” If he is what she thinks… he is a killer and survives on human blood. He isn’t some Edward Cullen.

She waited… hoping… wishing that he will come.

He didn’t.

And so she drove away.

 

 ****  
  
  


She went to the hospital, to know more about the mysterious sickness his father was going through.

That’s where she saw him. He was walking out with Elena’s boyfriend.

“Damon.” She greeted him, but her eyes were fixed on the guy beside him.

“Hi Caroline, meet my brother Stefan… since you look so interested in him.” Damon gestured.

He was staring at her well. So, as far as being interested is in the concerned topic, he looked as much interested in her as much she looked interested in him.

The lines on her forehead were all crumbled together when she picked up the words from Damon.

“Your brother?” She snapped.

“Yep.”

Her eyes went from Damon to Stefan…. and Stefan to Damon.

 

 

If Stefan is a vampire, does it make Damon one as well? Is that how it all works?

 

“Can I have a moment with your brother then?”

His frowned brows were the proof of him being confused.

Damon looked at his brother, and when he didn’t argue, Damon left them alone.

 

 ****  


“I, uh.” She started. “I was looking for you.”

His frown deepened, like he didn’t understand an alphabet of what she said.

“I thought that going to the accident spot might help, but you weren’t there either.”

He was still confused.

“Whatever that was… I am so sure that it wasn’t the human normal.”

The crease on his forehead starts to go away when his brain figured out the big puzzle.

“You remember!” He whispered.

“Well, yeah. How can I not? I mean it was the first time I saw a freaking fairy tale coming to life.” She laughed nervously.

“The Mystic Fall water supply.”  He joined the dotted lines.

“The what?”

“Why were you looking for me?” He chose to ask her the question instead.

“I, uh, I saw what happened there?”

“And?”

“And I need a favor from you.” She said slowly, looking at him expectantly.

“No.” one word answer.

“But, you didn’t even hear what the favor is.”

“I don’t need to hear it.” He walked away.

 

 

She followed.

 

 

Did it happened before? Him walking away? Might be a Déjà vu .

She thought.

“Please… I-”

‘You know what I am right?” He turned around and demanded.

“Yes.” She said, but she didn’t say the word.

Maybe somethings should not be out loud in words.

“And you still expect me to favor… you?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Not expecting….. Just requesting, you know.” She mumbled.

“Are you not even a little bit of scared of me or something. You know what I am and you still think that I will help you?”

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Yes, yes I think once you will hear me, you will help me.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I saw you helping that person, someone who was a stranger to you. It just makes me think that you are not a monster.”

His jaws clenched, as if he was deciding whether to move forward with the conversation or not.

He didn’t say anything, so she continued. “You said that it healed that guy. What exactly did healed him?”

“My blood.”

“I need it.”

“Huh?”

“My father… He, uh, he is dying, or injured at least. And if your blood can heal him, I want that for him.”

“I can’t help you.” He said slowly.

“Please, don’t say-”

“He is not dying.”

“He is not?” A smile came on her face.  
“He is already dead.”

“What?” She gritted her teeth. “What kind of a sick joke is that.”

“Caroline-”

“No, if you don’t wanna help me, then fine, I will find some other way. But, never ever tell me that my father is dead.”

She walked passed him. She didn’t need to hear what he wanted to say.

 

 

 

 **  
** The bell rang twice when she was came near the door. She never expected him, but he was there, standing, and waiting for her to answer the bell. **  
**

Green checked shirt tucked in his black jeans, he was rocking on his heels, with his hands deep in the pockets.

“How did you find me?” She asked.

“Forbes are pretty famous in this town. Being one of the Founder’s family and all.” She gave her a sly smile, chuckling on his own words.

“What do you want from me?”

He looked into her eyes. She wasn’t going to ask him the question. She has been trying to find and call different doctors, but there was nothing in the reports which said what exactly was wrong with her father.

“I want to help.”

“What changed your mind?”

He didn’t reply.

“Where is your father? I think you should call him.” He said while coming in her house.

 

**  
**

“What are you doing here?” **  
**

“I called him.” Caroline looked at her father. She didn’t know how to explain about Stefan, and what he is, but if that can help him getting saved, she would do it.

“I want you out of my house.” Her dad said with a stern look.

“What? Why?” Caroline jumped in.

“Stay away from my daughter.” He said, and pushed Stefan out of the door. Stefan has more strength from a human. But, he didn’t do anything, more like he couldn’t do anything.

He was her father afterall.

“Dad, he can help you!” Caroline interjected.

“I don’t need a help from a vampire.”

“Wait, you know about vampires?”

“Looks like you know it too. And you still invited that monster in my house.”

“Dad-”

Her dad went out of the house before she could have had tried to convince him.

 

“He is in transition.” Stefan said.

“What does that mean?”

“He had the vampire blood in his system when he died, and now he is in transition.”

“So, he is a vampire now?” She was shocked.

“Not yet.”

She waited for him to continue.

So, he continued. “He has to complete a transition.”

“How will he do that?”

“By drinking human blood.”

Caroline wanted to save her dad, to keep him alive. “And what if he didn’t do that?”

“He won’t transition.”

“And he will die.” She whispered, she had to find her dad.

 

“Daddy, please.”

“I am not going to become something I hate to the core of my heart, Caroline.”

“So, you will choose your hatred for vampires over me?” She was breaking into tears.  

“Daddy, I can’t lose you.”

“And I can’t choose to be a vampire, honey….. I am sorry.”

 

 

She was sitting on her porch, when he came walking towards her.

“He doesn’t want to transition. He is choosing to die than being in my life.”

A drop one after another, fell through her eyes.

“Why do people always leave me?” She whispered.

 

 

She never noticed when he took the place beside her on the stairs of the porch.

One hand squeezed her shoulder softly.

 

 

His grey shirt was already drenched with her tears, when she realized she was tucked under his arms.

 

 ****  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Year 2012,  
New York**

NYU is a big university, and taking the Drama major in NYU was way tough than she anticipated. But, thanks to her good GPA, and SAT score, she cracked it , and reserved a seat in there. She loved it.

The only thing was loving the world like she always did…. It doesn’t feel the same now. Not after she saw something which was never existing in her world.

Then why does she feel like he had always been there in her life, like the air she breathes.

Stefan Salvatore!

The vampire with a heart.

 ****  


Last time she saw him, was when she was sitting on her dad’s front porch, and he sat with her. She never saw him afterwards…..

“I couldn’t even thanked him for trying to help me.” Every day the thought came in her mind.

And everyday she looked in the shadows, in a hope that she will meet him once again.

 

 

 **  
  
  
** “So, you ready?” Jesse asked her on the phone. **  
**

“Yes. I will meet you directly in the restaurant.”

Her dating life was a wreck. Caroline Forbes has always wanted a fairytale love story for herself. But, it never came to be true. In high school she dated Zach, who was a jerk to her most of the time, and after that here and there she had some short term relations, but nothing worked.

Why did she ended up dating the wrong guys all the time.

Jesse seems nice, and maybe she could feel think of a relationship with. At least it was her third date with him.

 

 

 **  
** She was proven wrong again. **  
**

Dangerously wrong.

“What the hell are you doing.” Her voice was muffled when he put the tape on her mouth.

A serial killer…… She thought.

“I am sorry, Caroline. You are a good person. But, Rayna takes what she wants.”

She was losing her sight, her eyes were shutting slowly. Might be the sedation he injected inside her.

Maybe that’s how I am going to die. The last thought before she slipped away.

 

 ****  
  
  
  
  


Her eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the bright light. After a minute or so, she saw that she was in some kind of a room.

 

 

Her memories of the night started to come back to her.

She was going for the date, she went to the restaurant, and met Jesse there-…. Jesse!

She jumped and sat straight on the bed where she had been lying. Her heart was racing… pounding.

 

 **  
  
  
  
** “Hey…You okay?” She heard a voice rushing towards him. **  
**

That’s when she saw his face.

Stefan!

Is this a dream?

“Caroline….” She wanted to hear the name again and again and again in that voice. “You are safe now.”

“Did you saved me?” She asked him.

He just smiled.

“We have to inform the police about that psycho.” She started looking for her phone.

“He… broke your phone.”

He was sitting beside her on the bed. She saw his hand laying right near her right leg.

“Where is he?”

“He ran away before I could have had caught him.”

“Even with you superpowers you couldn’t catch him? Even I was able to kick him in his-” she stopped when he raised an eyebrow.

“You…. you know about my powers.”

Whether it was just simple statement or if he was asking her… she couldn’t figure it out.

“You think I won’t search about every single details on vampirism?”

He chuckled… as if he knows she would do exactly like that.

“So… what did you find out?”

“I find out that vampires have a superfast speed, they have  super-hearing, good strength, they can compel people with their eyes, and if you have vervain in your system then you can’t be compelled. And also, they don’t sparkle in the sun, they get burn.”

“And?” He prompted, as if he knows her so well that he can read through her that she was holding up something.

“And that the vampires are predators, and humans are their prey.”

He looked grimly, maybe he was expecting her to tell otherwise.

She can’t change the fact though.

He slowly started standing up, taking the hint that she doesn’t want him around her.

So, She stopped him. “I listed them as the stuff about vampires…. A general list. I never said it’s the only things about YOU I have figured out.”

He repositioned himself on the bed, attentive to what she was going to answer.

So, she continued.

“You are Stefan Salvatore, you belong to the founding family of Mystic Falls, like I do. Like other vampires, you have a superfast speed because I saw you outrunning me like a lightening bolt that day. You can compel humans as well, taking by the conversation we had on the road, I am pretty sure you were trying to compel me to forget everything I saw about you. And it didn’t work because of the vervain in my blood like you said afterwards.”

He stared at her, as if he wanted to say something.

He didn’t

“What I don’t understand is…. that how come you can walk in the sun as if you have some sunscreen lotion on you.”

He chuckled on the reference, and pointed at the ring on his finger.

“Not the sunscreen lotion… but it is this ring which protects me from getting burnt.”

“So…. does it protects you from vervain and fire as well?”

His body stiffened at the question. What did she asked wrong?

“No… it doesn’t protect from vervain…. and fire.”

Fire… his jaws clenched on the word like he had some bad memories about it. And she could see the fear in his eyes. The greener than the forest eyes.

“You okay?” She asked when he didn’t respond, as if his head was somewhere else.

“I should be asking that.”

“And you did… that was the first thing you asked when I woke up.”

He looked at her, and she could see something more than just a stare in his eyes.

“I am fine.”

“How did you find me?” She asks, and waits for him to answer.

“I was near the alley, when I heard the the voices.”

She opened her mouth to ask about him more.

“I should take you back to your dorm. It’s late now.” He shuts her off.

They were standing in front of her hostel when she decides to tell whatever she needed to say.

“Thanks.” She blurts.

“It’s okay, I was passing by-”

“I am not thanking you for today.” Her words stop him. “I mean, obviously I am thankful for saving me. But, the thanks is not only for today, but also for the time when you sat beside me and let me cry, when Dad was… you know.”

She could see his lips twitching a little. “I know it’s none of my business, but I, uh, I came to your place, to thank you. But, you were gone.”

“I don’t stay at one place for long.” He replies like that should explain his presence around her this time.

“And yet we met again.” She winks at him.

“Maybe we should not.” His face is grave.

“I won’t tell anyone about your secret. Your secret is safe with me.” She explains like that is the reason he wants to go far away.

“I know that.”

“How?” It was the strength of the confidence in his voice which makes her ask the question.

“Because I trust you. And even if you would have said-”

“Nobody would have believed me, right?”

“No.” He shakes his head, and takes a step closer. “Even if you would have said about my secret” He starts again “It wouldn’t have mattered.”

“I have vervain in my system.”

“I know.” He says, and then he was gone, disappeared into thin air.

But, the last words didn’t make any sense to her.

_“And thanks for having the vervain in your system.”_

****  
  
  
  
  


**Year 2014,  
New York City**

“What’s wrong with her?” Caroline flips the papers in the file. She is standing in the hospital, and has no idea what is wrong with her mother. She was visiting her for christmas, and now she is hospitalized.

“Chemo?” She asks again.

“Yes for her cancer.”

“Since when is she taking the chemo?”

“For about six months now.”

“So, she is fine?”

“For now.”

 **  
  
  
  
  
** She went into her mom’s room, where she was lying on the hospital bed. **  
**

“Hey.” She smiles looking at her. “How are you feeling?”

“I am good.”

“When were you going to tell me about your cancer?” She can see the moisten eyes her mother had.

“I just thought that it might get better with the chemo.”

“Mom, I will consult with the best doctor in the world, and I am gonna fix it. But, you need to promise me.”

She had already lost her dad, she isn’t going to lose her mother as well. “Promise that you won’t keep anything like this from me.”

“I promise. I am actually thankful to Stefan for this.”

The name alarms her.

“Stefan?”

“Yeah, remember that kid in Mystic Falls.”

Yes, she remembers very perfectly.

“He is a Salvatore”

Yes, she knows that.

“and belongs to one of the founding member family.”

She knows that too.

“What did he do?”

“I met him few months back, and he suggested for a health check-up, I don’t know what check ups they did, but they found out about the cancer and it was in the initial stage at that time.”

Caroline knew that it wasn’t a coincidence that he found her mother in time. She doesn’t know what she did, but she found a guardian angel in him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Year 2014,  
North Carolina**

She is in Duke University, in the search of a way to save her mother. **  
**

“I am sorry. There is no way.”

 

The doctor says. And she is losing it now. Her hope, her optimism. Everything.

 

 

Slowly she walks out of the hospital building, and strays on some abandoned street. She didn’t see where she walked, and where the road took her. It was the dark that suddenly pushed her to see around herself.

 

“Why do I always find you walking in the dark alleys like these?” The voice comes from her behind, and she can recognize the sound anywhere.

“What are you doing here?”She asks him.

“I can ask the same question.” He smiles, taking one step closer to her.

“Something tells me you already know why I am here!” Her eyes wants to concentrate on him, but she is tired, just a hope, a request in her heart emerging like the soap bubble.

“It won’t work.” He says before she could even open her mouth.

“Why?” She didn’t think twice before asking. “You were the one who figured out my mom’s cancer, then why shouldn’t it work?”

She waits for him to say something.

He looks at her like she should understand, but she doesn’t.

“Is it because of my Dad? Because if it is, then don’t worry. I will convince her… and Dad didn’t want to transition. This is different.”

“It’s not that Caroline.” He says slowly.

“Then what is it?  You have a magical blood in your body, which can save my mom. So, please… please-”

“It doesn’t work like that.” He cuts her in.

“And how are you so sure about it? At least try, because you have a magical healing blood. Then why won’t it work on her?”

“Because.. I have already tried it before.”

And it didn’t work. He didn’t say, but she gets the message.

The silent series of breaths are making there way in and out of her mouth now.

“My mom is gonna die.” The tears which she tried so hard to keep inside, started to rush out of her body, she is still trying to keep it within, but she is loosing the control.

Eyes closed, and the sniffling of her own voice making it impossible to know the stuff happening around her.

Maybe that was the reason that she never heard him walking closer to her, and taking her in his embrace. It felt like she was standing because of his body support.

“I am sorry.”

She kept mumbling it,

“Shhh…”

And he kept stroking her back.

 ****  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Year 2012,  
Six months  later**

She is standing like a rock in front of her house… her mother’s house, and her hand is hovering over the knob. Maybe she shouldn’t go inside. What’s the point after all. She is gone, and nothing feels right, everything hurts and the pain is never-ending.

 

She goes in anyways.

 

She hangs up her Sweater jacket on the hook, and looks around the white walls surrounding her, the photographs of her growing up with her mother filling every corner, every inch of the house. She still can’t believe she is gone, even if she is just coming from her funeral. Many people came, and they all gave their condolences to her. But, that’s it. It’s not their pain, it’s hers… not their sorrow to feel, but her to feel.

 

Only if she had any way of shutting it all off.

 

 

 

 

 

She is staring aimlessly in the living room, when she hears the knock.

 

 

 

She could see him through the crack between the curtains on the door, standing with his hands deep in his tux pants, waiting for her to come to the door.

“What are you doing here?” She asked him while keeping the door half closed, standing in between the half open door.

“I was a bit worried about you.” Crouched shoulders, head slightly tilted, hands still inside his pocket, and eyes focused on her, he stood there as if it was his habit.

“You don’t need to be.”

He opens his mouth to speak, but Caroline isn’t finish yet. “Look, for the last six months you helped me with my mom… and everything. And I am glad that you were there with me.. I do, even if you didn’t have to do anything for me…. you still stayed and gave me every possible help. But, you don’t need to do this anymore.”

She thought that he would go now, she doesn’t need him, people leave, and he isn’t one of those who sticks around. He told her once.

_“I never stay at one place for long, move a lot.”_

And more importantly she doesn’t want to get attach to him.

“So, if you would rather be somewhere else-”

“-I don’t.”

He jumps into the conversation, taking one step closer to her. “I don’t… have to be anywhere else….”

Whether it was his eyes, or the sincerity in his voice, or just the mere thought of him standing in proximity of two inches of her made her heartbeats uneven.

Slow it down.

She reminded herself. The thought that he can hear her heart racing is making her feel embarrassed and flushed.

“In fact, I am at the right place this time.” He says it again, no hint of doubt lingering in the voice.

“This time? Did this happened before with you?”

His eyes drops to the floor, as if counting number of wooden blocks beneath his feet on the porch.

“Something like that.” He murmurs, and at that very moment she could feel that she isn’t the only one all alone this night.

“I won’t crash here for the whole night…”

It is again the tone in his voice and words that makes her smile.

Which brings the smile on his face too. “So, are you going to keep me standing here in the cold?” He raises an eyebrow.

“Vampires don’t feel cold.”

“Of course they do!”  Stefan argues, and again with the tone, her lips spreads into a lingering smile, like it did a few seconds before.

She moves a little right to her side, making a way for him to enter.

“Where are you going?” He asks when, instead of closing the door behind, she unlocks it.

“I forgot my charger inside my car. Just sit inside, I will be right back.”

“Let me bring it.”

He insists.

“No, I will do it. Don’t worry about it.”

She could feel his eyes boring on her back, when she closed the door behind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Caroline?”

The voice comes from her left.

Some girl, looks like of her age, but the face tells her that she is way more mature than what she looks like.

“You are Caroline, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I heard about your mother. I am so sorry.”

Caroline responds with a nod. Because she has been hearing it all day, and she doesn’t want anymore condolences, and at least not from some strangers.

“I have never seen you here before.”

Caroline says observing her, even though she haven’t met her before, she could feel the resemblance of her face.

“That’s because I am new year.”

Makes sense.

“Although, that doesn’t mean you haven’t seen me before.” The girl says.

That doesn’t make sense.

“I don’t think if I remember meeting you.”

The girl laughs. “Maybe because you were drunk at that time. Chicago. drunken night. abandoned by the cousin. asking for lift. Remember?”

And now she remembers. The girl who dropped her back at her cousin’s house when she was visiting her cousin’s family two years back.

“I remember now, and a little embarrassed too for having such a blurry memory.” Caroline smiles apologetically.

“Don’t be. Hey if you don’t want to stay alone, I can come with you.” The girl offers.

“No, that’s fine.”

“Oh, maybe someone is already with you.”

Odd assumption.

She thought.

“No… it’s just, I am really tired, and want to call the day now.”

“So… you are all alone today?”

 

 

“Yeah… yeah I am.”

She doesn’t know why, but something about the girl is making her feel weird.

“I am sorry, I really need to take some rest.”

“I understand. You take care of yourself, and I will see you later.”

The girl walks away, and that is when Caroline realizes that she forgot to ask her the name.

“Ray…. something Ray…”

She still couldn’t remember it.

So, she let it go. A stranger’s name isn’t important anyways.

But, the important thing to worry about is…. why did she lied being alone tonight, why didn’t she tell her about Stefan. It’s not like she is with a complete stranger right now.

She tries to come up with some answer.

But, there isn’t any.

**TO.BE.CONTINUED**


	3. Chapter 3

 

**Part- 3**

Silence… It was painted all over the walls. Two days have passed and it still feels the same, like she is stuck in the past, crossing the same station over and over again.

Mom

She almost called her mother, but stopped before she could have.   
She could still feel her presence around her all the time, as if she is looking after her, through the empty space surrounding her.

“Coffee might help you calm down,” he said handing her the mug. He took the couch right opposite to her.

“Who says I am not calm?” She replied, turning her head on her side and looking outside of the window.

He didn’t reply back.

“I am supposed to grieve and heal from this pain,” she said after a minute, “To move on in my life. How does anyone do that? How AM I supposed to do that? When does people stop hurting?”

She looks back at him, trying to get an answer.   
As if the queue has been initiated, he shrugs off his shoulder.

“I don’t think if there is any quick way of healing,” he said with his eyes focused on her.”The grief, the pain, it will always be there, but you will start finding your way to live with the hurt.”

“But, how can I keep living after losing everything in my life. She was the only person I could count on. And now… there is no one in this world who could love me like her.”

“You are wrong.”  
She raised an eyebrow on the sharp tone in his voice.

“About which part?” She asked.  
“You will be fine Caroline,” he said avoiding the question.

“How can you be so sure about it?”  
“Because, it’s you.”

 

 

Such a faith, more than she had on herself right now. The intensity in his eyes were saying so much more than his words.

“You might have lost a lot of people in your life, right?” she asked the question bluntly.

“Yeah, I did. A lot of them. However, sometimes it's not about how many, but whom you loses in the way.”

 

 

He was looking far away outside the window, like he was not even present with her, but is engrossed in his thoughts.

At that moment, he looked so lonely that she forgot about herself, like he was the one needed the console from her.

[***]

One week had been passed since she is an orphan, and nothing feels right. She could still see her mom in every corner of the town she turns around.

Except for the fact that he is still hanging around for a while.

“So, you are staying here?”  
“Yeah, I have some work to finish here.”

Work.  
What kind of work a vampire could have?  
She wanted to ask that. She might have asked it if it was any other day. Caroline Forbes asks whatever questions she have, and she speaks her mind. But, her head was occupied in the ache.

“Just some personal work I needed to take care of. And it doesn’t involve killing anyone,” he replied as if he could read her like an open book.  
“So, how long are you planning to stay?”  
“I don’t know. It’s not fixed yet,” he replied back.

She doesn’t like uncertainty, but she liked the idea of being around him.

“Good for me, I will have company.”

She smiled and she could see him being happy after a long time.

 

 

“You are not alone,” he whispered the words looking down at his feet.  
“You are not either.”  
His head turned back at her and she could see him smiling back.

 

 

A promise which feels like being there between them from the time that goes back to when she never existed on this planet.

[***]

  
She woke up with the constant knock on her door. She thought of not getting up and just go back to sleep. Anyways, who would come this early to her house?

So, she closed her eyes.

 

But, the knock didn’t stop.

And she had to get up.

She checked the clock which still said 5 a.m. and it kind of freaked her out.

She grabbed a baseball bat on the way to the door.

“What the hell Stefan!” she gasped when she saw him standing on her porch.

She opened the door, still holding the bat in his hand.  
“I think you need something stronger than that to beat me,” his index finger pointed on the thing in her hand.

“What is this?” She almost contained her laugh when she saw what he brought with himself.  
“It’s a baseball bat, with which people play on the grounds but hardly a weapon against a vampire.”

She rolled her puffy eyes which were still sleepy.

“I mean, that!”   
Now it was her finger that pointed in her direction.  
“It’s a bike.”  
“I know it’s a bike. But, what are you doing with it? You know, a vampire won’t look good on a pink bike.”  
“Ha-ha, so sad. But, it’s for you.”  
“For me?”   
“Mhmm,” he nodded his head.  
“A pink bike with light on it!”

He nodded again. “Now are we going on a ride or not?”  
“And why are we doing it again?”  
“You will see it soon.”

She paddled and the lights turned on, which made her laugh even more. It was still dark outside and thus, no one was up at this time. She turned back to look at him and he was riding his black colored bike very slowly.

“Don’t you think you are little too slow?” she asked.

He took it as a challenge, and rode it crossing her in the way.

“Heyyyyy, I didn’t mean this fast.”

“Sure you didn’t. Now catch me if you can,” his laughter reached her with the wind blowing in her direction.

“Okay, just tell me where are we heading to?”  
“You will see it.”

So cryptic.

“You know, when I was a kid, I had the same colored bike with lights on it.”  
The memory of her mother teaching her how to ride the bike was still fresh in her mind. And the memory made her pace slow.

“The amount of tantrums I used to throw,” she laughed softly remembering those lessons.  
“Well, I don’t blame you… after all, your bike had the lights.”

He stopped along with her. “We are here.”

“And where is here?” She looked around herself, but apart from being in the middle of nowhere, she couldn’t get the point of riding all the way to this place.

“You are not going to throw me into water or something are you?” she asked jokingly.

“And lose such a good company? Now that would be a bad idea wouldn’t it?”He chuckled softly.

He walked into the grass, and she followed him. Their bikes were parked on the narrow road near the Giant tree.

“Then what the hell are we doing here?”

She walked passed, and stopped right in front of him, blocking his way there.

“Enough with all the secret, and will you tell me what are we doing here?” she crossed her arms across her chest.

His finger pointed to their side at the same moment when the first ray of sunlight struck the standing Caroline and Stefan. She turned around, squinting her eyes due to the brightening light falling directly on her face.

“For that,” he whispered.

With the eyes slightly opened, she could see the most beautiful scenery in front of her. The blue sky mixed with the color of the sun, the ground beneath her feet covered with the shade of purple coming from the tiny little flowers. Every corner of the place looked lightened up.

“This place is so…. Beautiful,” she said.

She turned around to look at Stefan expecting him to be lost in the marvel of this place.

Instead she found him looking at her.

  
He grinned at her.

“What are you smiling about?”

He shook his head, and shrugged off his shoulders, putting his hands deep into his jeans pocket.

“Just that the smile looks good on you. Always wear that.”

“Well, the place deserves it.”

As she started saying the words, her feet started to move in a particular direction, as if she knew what was going to come next.

The purple and yellow daffodils of the meadow surrounding them with its fragrance.

“I came here once with mom and dad when he was visiting,” she whispered, “I, uh, I was like five or six, and he came to see me. He found this place for a picnic day.”

She bend down to sit on the ground, and sat right next to her.

“That was the best summer I had.”

Any moment the tears were about to come out of her eyes. So, she tried to keep them inside.

“They are not gone, Caroline. They are living through you, still alive in your memories,” Stefan said softly.

His face was so sincere at the moment that if he would have declared the daylight to be a night, she would have believed it. And it wasn’t the vampire’s hypnotic power at all. That was all Stefan.

“So, what are we going to do next?” she asked leaning on her elbow.

“Enjoy the brightest star of the universe.”

If she wasn’t watching him, she might have thought he was talking about the sun. And in that very moment, his eyes looked so green and yet brown, as if she could see the whole forest in there.

  
[***]

 

_“I am not going anywhere… because I love you.”_

The words kept repeating in her head, like the morning sunrise. She concentrated on those words, focusing on the voice, trying to put a face on that voice. A blurry smile started to dance in front of her.

She opened her eyes, and figured that it was just a dream.

Dream or a deja vu?

She could feel the familiarity of the voice.

Maybe someone from another life, her past life.  
She gave that reason to herself, and chuckled at the same time.

There is no other life. But, if there was any…. She would definitely wanted to clearly see that face.

_Thud_

The noise came from downstairs, and she rubbed her eyes. It wasn’t the first time in past few days that she woke up with the sound of two bowls crashing with each other.

_Thud_

She got up, put the robe on, and walked down the stairs.

“Did I wake you up? I am sorry I didn’t mean to. The back door was open, and I just came in. I shouldn’t have, I am sorry, ” said Stefan when he saw her standing just outside the kitchen. The seriousness in his voice made her smile. She wasn’t used to him being around him all the time.

“That’s a lot of sorrys in the single line, and no, you didn’t woke me up, actually. I was about to get up,” came the response from Caroline.

He doesn’t need to be there with her. After all, who is he to her? She has tried to talk to him and told him if he wanted to leave, he could. He never stays at one place for a long time. And she didn’t want to be standing in his way.

He politely denied it and said he might stay in town for a little while.

She won’t deny the sigh of relief she had with his response.

“Breakfast is ready,” Stefan said focusing on the culinary.

Vampire cooking the food for her. That’s the first one.

But, with Stefan there was a lot of stuff which she experienced for the first time.

“What are we having today?”  
“Egg Benedict on top of toasted bread with bacon on the side.”  
“Well that looks tempting,” she commented to which he responded with a raised eyebrow.

She didn’t get the response but few seconds passed and she realized that she made the comment while looking at him and not the actual food.

Shit

“THE FOOD,” she screamed, and he nodded once. “Looks delicious.”   
Her eyes couldn’t move away from the plate he put in front of her on the table. Probably because of how wonderfully he decorated it.

That’s what she tried to tell herself.

But, she knew it well, why she couldn’t. She could hear his chuckles, and it was making her even more embarrassed.

“You are a really good cook.”

Conversing about it might make the situation less awkward.

“Yeah I like cooking, kind of my third nature.”

“Well, your girlfriend must be very lucky,” she said mouthful of the food.

He smiled but didn’t reply.

She waited for an answer. He didn’t have to, but her heart was jumping and dying to know more about him.

“Unless she doesn’t like human food.”

He was looking down at his plate.

“By that I wasn’t assuming that she is also a vampire.”

A laughter came from his direction.

“More like if you have some kind of rule to date vampires or something.”

She is in a middle of starting the one sided blabbers which she usually do to escape the awkward moments. This one being one of them.

So, when he called her name, she was relieved because now she could stop talking.

“Caroline,” he started, playing with the fork in his hand, “I don’t have any rule for dating. Vampire or not… doesn’t matter.”

And that’s it. He stopped talking.

Good news- he could date a human, bad news- his current availability still unknown.

She waited for more.

He didn’t continue, and she almost bit her tongue while keeping it away from asking the next question.  
“Well, with human it won't work anyways right, I mean she will keep getting older and you will still be seventeen, and soon it will look like you are her son.”

Foot in the mouth.   
That’s what should be there in her mouth for 24/7 because she can’t keep her mouth shut even for a minute, and by his looks she could definitely say that she just stepped on his weak spot or something.

“Yeah, there is that,” he said slowly.

“I didn’t mean to offend you. I am so sorry.”  
“No, that’s okay. It’s the fact, and you can’t change them.”

Change the subject.

  
“So, tell me about your girlfriend. I mean she must be missing you, since you are away from her for quite a long time.”

What the hell is wrong with her? She is just not able to leave this topic.

Must be because of that stupid dream.

He gestured with a fine line on his lips. A plain and simple smile.

She was losing it now.

“I should be going now,” he said while standing up.

“So soon?” Her heart started to pound faster.  
“Yeah, I have a work to finish.”

Did she offend him somehow? Made a rude comment? Said something she wasn’t supposed to say?

“Oh… okay,” she reacted.

“I will be back soon.”

He was standing near the back door when he said that. He was looking like he was in some kind of pain, which was definitely to do with the next few words that came from his mouth.

“And… I, uh, I don’t have a girlfriend.”

[***]

  
“Let’s play truth or dare,” she declared when she walked into the living room.

He laughed at her suggestion. “What are we? Seven?”  
“Well, I am bored and it’s too early to sleep.”  
“Still, kind of a kid’s game.”  
“Fine, let’s spice it up. To keep the count of who is winning, each of us will take the glass of shot if the other succeeds in the truth or dare assigned to them.”  
By the look at his face, he was about to argue. Instead the word ‘fine’ came out of his mouth.

She brought three bottles, two filled with vodka  
“Where is the bottle to spin?” he asked.  
“We don’t need it, we can go alternate of the turn,” she answered, “so, truth or dare?”

“Dare.”  
“Go to the convenient store, and shoplift.”  
“You are kidding, right?”  
“Nope. Now, let’s go.”

She pushed him out of the door, and grabbed her car keys.

 

 

“I can’t believe this!” she said when he threw the poly bag with the stuff he shoplifted. “You can’t compel people, it’s against the rules.”

“What rule? It’s not written anywhere.”  
“That’s because nobody played with a vampire.”  
“And I did it because nobody mentioned me about the rule. I think someone has to drink,” he was smug but she wasn’t going to lose that easily.

 

 

  
“Truth or dare Caroline?”  
“Dare.”  
He smiled at her, and said, “Follow me.”

 

 

 

“Seriously… you want me to knock on a random house.”  
“Yeah.”  
“That is like the worst dare ever,” she kept mumbling about how stupid the dare was, but did it anyways.

  
“Now, it’s time for some truth,” she said, “Tell me something about yourself that you keep it to yourself.”

He looked at her with pain in his eyes, that for a minute she regretted for asking the question.

“I have killed so many people that the names are countless now,” he paused and chuckled, “but, it’s funny that now that’s not something I regret the most anymore.”

“Then what do you regret?”  
“Losing myself,” he whispered.  
“Did somethin-”  
“That’s more than one question, and the rule says just one,” he said being back to normal, “So, any horrifying dream?”  
She laughed, “Yeah, freshmen year. My dad was here and I heard a fight between mom and dad, and I was so angry at them when I went back to sleep, and I saw myself standing in school without any clothes.”  
He coughed.  
“What’s horrifying about that?” he asked.  
“Not for others, but for me it was a nightmare,” she grumbled.  
He laughed.   
“Not funny.”  
“Sorry,” he apologized.

 

 

 

  
“Do you believe in love?” she asked the question after series of dares between them.  
He laughed loudly. “Who doesn’t?”  
“So who is your ideal girl?”  
“That’s question number two.”  
“No, it’s part b of the same question,” she argued.  
He sighed, and looked at the stars. They were still out and were currently sitting on the grounds of the football stadium of her old high school.  
“Someone who is kind, and passionate, and loyal,” he smiled looking at the stars, like he wanted to say more, but didn’t.  
He looked back at her and asked, “what about you?”  
“I don’t know... someone who is good hearted, cares about everyone, and not a jerk obviously.”  
He chuckled, “bad experience, huh?”  
“Really bad!” she sighed. “Why can’t we have more guys like you?” she asked, looking straight in his eyes.

He looked at her, and said, “You deserve better than that.”

 

 

 

 

“So, do you love any girl?”  
They have lost the track of question by now. From truth and dare, the game had been converted to truth and truth, and she was holding her tongue back from asking this question. Mainly because she was dreading for what if his answer would be a yes?

After having so much alcohol in her system, she asked the question finally.

He looked at her, his face very serious and sincere, and after a bit of thinking, he replied, “yes.”  
“Who is she?” she asked in an instant. Anger raging inside her.

“Someone whose smile can brighten the whole room,” he was deep in his thoughts smiling to himself, “with whom for the first time in my life, I felt like dancing, around whom, I laughed most of the time, She was my best friend with whom I could share anything, be honest to her, and she never judged me, she saw me for what I am, she is someone who saved me from myself."

  
He went silent, but the way he talked, she could say that he was talking about a past, and not the present.

“Where is she now?” seemed like the right question to ask next.  
“Looking at the stars,” he said, “But, it doesn’t matter where she is now anyways.”  
She waited for him to continue, so he replied, “what matters the most is that she is safe and living her life,” he turned his head from the stars to her direction, “nothing matters now, because I have lost her a long time back.”  
She doesn’t know, if it was the drunken state, or the earth started to shrink. But, she could feel the distance between them diminishing, her body moving like a magnet attracted to it’s opposite pole.

“When are you planning to go back to college?” he asked suddenly.

Huh?

“I, uh, I don’t know. I just don’t feel like going back to my life again, because if I do, it will be moving on, and… I just don’t want to do that,” she looked at him, the vampire who existed only in the myths, and in a normal world, there won’t be a place for a human and vampire to be friends, or more than friends.

Such a tragedy.

“But, you have to Caroline. Life is too short…. Trust me, when I say don’t waste it.”  
“But you are immortal.”  
“That’s just a word for an eternal loneliness.”

If I kiss you, will you kiss me back?

The question was on top of her tongue, but never made it out of her system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
She saw a dream, where they laughed and laughed. She fell on the ground, and he fell over her.

She moved up, and their lips touched softly.

She breath the air in and out, keeping it rhythmic with his exhales and inhales. It couldn’t be a dream, because nothing can feel like that kiss.

He backed away, breathing unsteadily. “I… I can’t.”

“Do you still love her?”

she didn’t wanted to ask this question.

“Yes,” he answered.

Maybe she shouldn’t have asked.

And he vanished, saying, “I need to go.”

She wished to open her eyes, and get up from the dream.

She couldn’t because this wasn’t a dream.

 

And she sat there, crying and sobbing in the silence of the night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_Ring…_

_One ring..._

_second ring..._

_third ring..._

The ring went off, and reached his voice-mail.

She tried his phone a lot of times, but every time it was the same response.

More like no response at all.

Was he gone for real this time?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
She checked the ice-cream aisle for the third time, like her special box of choco-cream will appear out of magic in the shelf.

“Looking for something particular?”

She heard a voice, and turned around to see the girl standing behind her. The same girl she met on her mother’s funeral.

“Hey,” Caroline smiled at the girl.  
“Long time no see, even though it’s a small town,” the girl replied.  
“True that, so how are you liking the place?”  
“It’s fine. I am living though,” she smiled like there was some hidden meaning to it. “Anyways, I thought spring break is over now.”  
“It is.”  
“Well, I was thinking of going to New York this weekend.”  
“Oh, I am studying there.”  
“Oh, if you want to carpool, I am in for that.”

Caroline thought for a minute, and then her head shrieked, well what the hell.

So, she replied, “Okay, yeah I think I should go back to normalcy. I have to read for my tests too.”  
“Great, see you tomorrow then..”  
“I thought you said weekends.”  
“And the weekend starts from tomorrow,” she smiled. “See you then.”

She waved her a good-bye, and suddenly she remembered her name.

Rayna!

And she still thinks that she knows her from somewhere but not from the last two meetings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
She opened the door, being all set to leave her house.

It’s time to move on.

But, when she did, her heart stopped beating for a second.

He was there, right in front of her, standing one feet away.

“Hey,” he said.  
“What are you doing here?”  
“You are angry.”  
She laughed angrily. “So, after not receiving any of my calls, you disappeared without even explaining, and now you expect me not to be angry?”  
“I, had to leave, and I lost my phone.”  
“Why do you always have to leave without informing me?”

Silence, until his eyes spotted the travelling bag behind her.  
“Are you going somewhere?” He asked.  
“Shouldn’t matter to you. Should it?”

She was not going to answer his question.  
“I am going back to New York.”  
She did, anyways.

“Oh,” he replied like he wasn’t expecting that.   
“I can drop you,” he offered.  
“I am actually going with this girl, who offered for carpool.”  
“Who?”  
“She is new in town.”

He frowned. Something didn’t look right to him.

“Do you know her?”  
“Yeah, I met her a long time back, and then we bumped into each other once again. I should be getting ready, Rayna will be here any minute.”

His eyes widened when she finished her sentence.

“Rayna… her name is Rayna?”  
“Uh, yeah.”

The moment she nodded her head in agreement, he was right next to her, taking the bags and putting them in his car.  
“What are you doing?”  
“We have to leave… now., before she come here.”  
“I am not going anywhere, until you tell me why I have to come with you.”

“Because, she is the one I have been running away for a long time,” he admitted finally.

Too late, that Rayna was already pulling the car.

 

 

 

But, he was fast. And his foot hit the gas, going at 60 miles/hour in a minute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His eyes drifted once or twice, or maybe more than twice in her direction. She was sitting in silence, looking out of the window. Nothing was making any sense to her.

  
“Who is she?” Caroline asked finally.  
“A vampire hunter.”  
“Then why was she talking with me?”  
“She might have seen us together or something.”  
“But, she and I met long before we knew each other. It doesn’t make any sense.”

His jaws clenched, and he tried to keep his eyes on the road.

“Unless….” her brain started to work, joining the missing dots, “unless, we did met before, but you wiped out my memories.”

No reply.

“Stefan” she called his name, because she wanted him to deny.

He didn’t, and it was making her angry.

 

  
So, he took the wheels, and stopped the car, taking the keys in her hand.

  
They were standing over the lake on the bridge.

“Tell me the whole truth right now, or I am throwing this key in the lake.”  
“Wait,” he called standing at least four feet away from her.  
“Yes, I did met you before.”  
“How many times?” she asked.

He stood still.

“How many times, Stefan?”  
“Six,” he said.  
“And six times you compelled away my memories,” she started walking opposite to him.  
“I had to do that, Caroline,” he followed, “she might have looked for you.”  
“And do you think I would have told her about you? Even after meeting me so many times, you couldn’t figure it out that I would never had ditched you?”

She was angry because he took her will away from her, kept her in dark, and mostly she was angry because, he didn’t trust her.

“It wasn’t about that. I could bear anything but to see you getting hurt. I wouldn’t have just led her way to you, Caroline,” he said slowly. He looked down, his eyes fixed on the dirt beneath his shoes.

How can his words not have a melting effect on her? She wondered.

“We should keep going then,” she cleared her throat.

  
There is a long journey ahead.

 

 

 

 

  
It was long since they were moving, and in the halt they took a motel.   
“What happened between you two?”  
“She took everything away from me,” he replied. “She is the reason I lost my love.”

She could feel his eyes glistening with tears, and at that very moment she wanted to forget about her anger, and to hug him until she had the strength to do so.

  
She didn’t though, so no point in thinking further.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She was keeping the stuff in his bag, since her own bag was too full, when she found the photograph.  
Elena.  
She didn’t get it. Why would he have a photograph of his brother’s girlfriend?  
So, that’s how he lost his love.

He loved Elena, and still is in love with her.

 

 

 

“We are on the road to Texas,” she said looking at the map, “We can go to Dallas.”  
“Or to somewhere else.”  
“Why?”  
“Last time it was the same place, and this is happening again.”  
“What’s happening again?”

No answer.

She should be used to it by now.  
“Stop at the next convenient store,” she said. She is tired of his behavior, and keeping secrets from her. Better to talk about something else.

He nodded, and didn’t talk for the rest of the journey.

 

 

 

 

  
She saw Rayna standing in front of her, and the next reflex was to run.

“I am not gonna hurt you right now. Just listen to me.”  
“Why should I?”  
“Because you are not safe,” Rayna whispered.  
“From you?”  
She shook her head.  
“From Stefan. He is not what you think he is. He is no vampire with a heart.”  
“Stay away from me,” Caroline warned. She was in no mood of listening to her.  
“You don’t know him like I do Caroline. He will always be a predator, and you will always be a prey to him. He will always be on top of the food chain.”

She turned around to leave.

“He is lying to you,” Rayna said.

She didn’t stop.

“If you don’t believe me, then ask him about his so called love he murdered.”

She stopped.

Elena is dead?

“She is still alive,” said Caroline.  
“Is that what he tells himself to sleep at night? He has kept a lot of secrets from you, what makes you so sure that he isn’t keeping any other?”

She had enough of it all, and so she walked out of the store.

 

 

“What happened to the girl you loved?” she asked him.  
He looked at her before answering, and finally replied, “she died.”

 

“He is a monster, and will always be a monster. And I can help you, if you let me.”  
Rayna’s words were still whispering in her ears.

 

 

 

 

**Year 2012,**   
**A warehouse in the route to Houston**

  
Before leaving the motel, he had decided to offer her the memories back, and also he wanted to tell her the truth. He couldn’t see the hatred in her eyes anymore. Moreover, she deserved to know everything, and decide for herself. He knew once he will tell her everything, she will hate him even more. But, he has to live with that. She has to know how much he loves her, and will do everything to protect her.

He looked around himself, and he could see the familiarity of the place. He had been here once, when everything burnt to ashes. His heart beat started to rise thinking about the day.

“Why are we coming in this place?” he asked.  
“It looks like a good place to hide for a while,” she answered and walked into the place.  
“I don’t think it’s a good idea, Caroline,” he spoke, and then he saw her. Rayna was walking straight towards them.  
“Caroline, stay behind me,” he said, standing in between her and Rayna.   
“Thanks for bringing her Caroline,” Rayna smiled.

He turned back to look at her, her face was stiff like a stone, and he couldn’t read her at all. She didn’t trust him, and why would she? He thought. He had given no reason to gain her trust. Instead of telling her the truth, he kept her in the dark, compelling her to forget about himself.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He needed to stay away from her, he should have kept her safe. But, now she is stuck here because of him.

“Let her go,” he talked with Rayna, “it’s between me and you. Let Caroline go.”

Rayna laughed, and walked towards him.

She was about to speak, but got shot several times.  
He heard the gunshots coming from his behind, watching Caroling holding a gun.   
“Oh my god, I killed someone,” she was shaking.

He held her, and vamp sped to escape Rayna. There was a wooden boxes behind which he took the shelter.  
“She can’t be killed from normal gunshots,” he whispered.  
“I thought, if I led her here, I can finish it for you, and then you will be free of her. I am so sorry, Stefan.”  
“Hey, look at me… look at me, take a deep breath, everything is going to be fine. You are going to be fine. I am not going to let anything happen to you.”  
Her breathing started to calm down. “What are we going to do now?”  
“We are going to get out of here… together,” he told her.

 

She burnt the wood and fire spread through the oil in the whole warehouse.

So much like the last time.

“You can’t escape me Stefan,” Rayna shouted.

History repeating itself, but he won’t let it happen again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Why did you shot her?”  
“You thought I turned my back on you, didn’t you?” she asked, “I won’t do that Stefan.”  
“I know, but even if you would have done that, I would have understand it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
“She told me that you killed her… the girl you loved.”  
He nodded. There was no lie in that.

“She died because of me. One mistake, and she was the one who paid,” the scene of her burning in front of him was still fresh, and whenever he starts thinking about it, it gives him the ache in the middle of his chest.  
“She was the lucky girl that she had you,” she said. Even in the middle of the chaos, she had the power of making him smile.

 

 

 

 

 

  
Fire was everywhere, and there was no way they could escape it.  
“Caroline, I have to go out.”  
“No, she will kill you,” she stopped him.  
“I promise you, i will come back to you, and when I will come back, I will tell you everything. No more secrets.”

And then he pulled her, kissing her softly. “I backed off that because, when I am around you, I lose control on my heart.”

  
Before she could reply, he was out in the open.

 

 

 

“Finally,” Rayna said, “Same place, same fire. The only change will be, I won’t repeat the mistake I did last time.”

“Just don’t drag Caroline in this.”

She laughed like a maniac. “You don’t know anything do you? She is already in it.”

He brows furrowed deeper.

“When you decided to change everything you started, I got stuck in this timeline.”  
“I asked just for me, I didn’t know when Valerie-”  
“That’s because she never told you. When you made this alternate world, she planned her own escape, and she also didn’t tell you one more thing.”  
“What’s that?”  
“Caroline is in the center of everything…. If I kill her, everything finishes, the vampires who were supposed to be dead will die with her, and I can be free.”

“She is a human, and you don’t kill humans.”  
“Collateral damage!”  
“Yeah well, I won’t let that happen… I love Caroline.”

 

And when he stabbed her with her own sword, a white light emerged in the middle of her chest, turning into a blast. He could hear Caroline’s shrieks, calling his name.

Stefan….

His name sounds so good in her voice. He closed his eyes, and sighed. If this is how it ends, at least he could die in peace, knowing that the paramedic team will be here soon, and Caroline will be safe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
White light hit directly on her eyes. So, she squinted her eyes closed.  
“She is coming back to her sense now.”  
She heard someone saying.  
“I saw her eyes moving.”  
Said another voice.

She opened her eyes slowly.

“How are you feeling now?”  
“Tired,” she answered in a croaking voice, “where am I?”  
“You are in a hospital,” the doctor said, “what is the last thing that you remember?”  
“I… I was going to Texas, I think. But, my memory is all blank.”  
“Sometimes, in accidents, a periodic memory loss is very common. Don’t stress yourself, and have some rest.”

She nodded, and went back to sleep.

 

 

 

  
She opened her eyes, and saw the white colored daisies kept on the side table.

“How are you feeling now?” she heard a voice asking her.  
She looked at him and replied, “Happy after seeing you finally.”

Stefan smiled at her. “I promised you, didn’t I?”

She got up, adjusting herself on the bed. “So, you love me huh?”  
“You heard that?”  
“Thank god I did,” she chuckled.  
“The doctors said that you didn’t remember anything.”  
“I didn’t know what to tell them, so I just acted in that way.”  
He nodded, and laughed. “Your acting skills never surprises me.”

“So…., we have a lot of catching up to do,” she prompted.  
“A lot of things are not going to make any sense to you,” he said.  
To which she replied, “Try me.”

The sound of their chuckles were mixed, synchronized with each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
_“If you could go back in past, and change one thing, what will you change?” she had asked her once._

  
_“I will save her, and protect her till my last breath,”_

  
**The End**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally I was able to finish this fic. I know its been over a month, when I updated this fic. In the beginning, I was not sure about the end, and battled with myself whether to keep him alive or not. But, then season 7 happened, and I have seen so much of angst there, I didn't want them to be in pain at least in my fic. So, I ended up with version 2 of my story. It might seem weird to people, but that's it.   
> I would like to thank everyone who waited for this story, and left kudos. It means a lot :) hope you enjoyed the end.


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